So today I thought I'd try something a little different. If you know me, you also know that I love movies just as much as I love books. Last year I did a post on my favorite books which I thought was a lot of fun, so this time I thought I'd do a post on my favorite movies of all time.
Now, I love a lot of movies that won't be on this list. For instance, I love The Godfather and have seen it like 3 times, however, I wouldn't call it a favorite. To be a favorite, a film really needs to stick with me. There needs to be something about it that just ingrains itself into my brain and never leaves. Whether that be a performance or a scene or the movie had me crying out of laughter or sadness. The (for lack of a better term) oomph factor is what pushes a movie from being a movie that I love to a movie that is a favorite. Also, if I were doing a list of movies that I loved it would be, at minimum, 80 movies long.
That being said, this list is 11 movies long, spanning decades, languages, and continents. So grab a snack or a drink, sit back and settle in, cause this will take a while.
THE FILMS (In chronological order):
*Warning* - There might be mild spoilers throughout this post. I'm sorry, but I have to mildly spoil some things to really explain why this movie is a favorite!
*Caveat* - Many of these films are products of their time, aka. many of these films will have problematic content. Please don't take me listing a movie on here that has a problematic scene in it, as me condoning that behavior. If I watch a movie and say that I like it, I am not oblivious to all of it's flaws.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
(Language: English)
To be completely honest, the history of this movie is even more interesting than the movie itself. We have Katharine Hepburn, unrelated to Audrey Hepburn, as our main protagonist Tracy Lord. So prior to this Katharine Hepburn had a string of commercially unsuccessful films, to the point where she was labeled 'box office poison' and basically no Hollywood studio was interested in working with her. At the time, several film stars had lost their entire careers after being labeled 'box office poison', so she was a little worried as anyone would be in that situation. So Hepburn decides to engineer her own comeback by going to Broadway and she goes and stars in a play written by her friend. This play, titled 'The Philadelphia Story', turns out to be SUPER successful, so she knows that the film studios want to remake it.
SO THEN, she buys the rights to the play and sells it to MGM studios (you know the one with the lion that roars), for super cheap but only under the condition that she stars as the main lead and that she can choose who directs the movie and who the rest of the cast is. Then she proceeds to cast her friends Cary Grant and James Stewart as the other leads and chooses her friend George Cukor to be the director. The film goes on to be super successful and Hepburn's career is revived. I mean...this is some real girlboss, business savvy foresight here.
So what's the film about? The film is about Tracy Lord who is getting married to a man named George. But, two days before the wedding, Tracy's first husband Dexter shows up along with a couple reporters and things get messy. There is so much to love about this movie. The chemistry between all the characters, the witty script, and just generally the vibe of the entire film. This film is just one of those movies that gets better every time you watch it.
Some Like it Hot (1959)
(Language: English)
A film about two broke male musicians, Joe and Jerry, who accidentally witness a mob hit, so they decide to dress up as women and join an all-women band going on tour to get out of the city to avoid being caught by the mob. Yeah... I know. I mean apparently the Catholic League of Decency had major issues with this film, saying it was offensive to traditional values, to which the actors and directors of the film were like
yeah yeah, nobody cares what you think. In fact, the film was made in violation of the Hays Code which were the censorship guidelines laid on directors for what was considered 'acceptable' for American audiences. The main violations being, open discussion of gender and sexual identity.
Today the film is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. With good reason too, I mean all the actors in this film are phenomenal. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, who play Jerry and Joe, are relentlessly funny and Marilyn Monroe who plays the main female lead, Sugar, is right up there with them. But the magic of this movie lies in its ability to subvert traditional ideas of gender and sexual identity and question what exactly is a 'traditional value', all while keeping its audience laughing the entire time. I'd highly recommend watching it.
Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai (1960)
(Language: Hindi)
A nurse and doctor romance? Yes. In this film we are following a young nurse named Karuna who gets transferred to work at this hospital. Here she meets a young handsome doctor named Sushil. She and Sushil work together and end up falling in love and everything's going great, except for the fact that Sushil's father promised his friend that Sushil would marry the friend's daughter, Kusum. So Sushil ends up getting married to Kusum and Karuna is all sad, but then it turns out Kusum is mean and Sushil doesn't like her and then Kusum leaves and to no one's surprised, Sushil and Karuna end up together at the end. More happens, but really that's the gist.
In a time where several Hindi films portrayed women as needy, thoughtless, or obsessed with marriage and children, Karuna is refreshingly portrayed as an independent working woman not really concerned about getting married. She is caring, thoughtful, beautiful, strong-willed, and knows her self-worth. Of course she's sad when Sushil gets married but she just picks herself up, dusts herself off and is like, eff him, I'm going my own way.
Tbh there are two fantastic scenes in this movie that get me every time I watch it. One is when Sushil and Karuna flirt over a late night coffee in the hospital.
I honestly can't tell if they're on a beach or in the hospital. Also, what's the need to stand so close to drink coffee huh?
The other is the face Karuna's friend makes when she senses the tension and chemistry between Karuna and Sushil.
I mean... is this not the most relatable thing ever?
Psycho (1960)
(Language: English)
I wholeheartedly believe this movie is the best thriller I've ever seen in my life. The suspense? 10/10. The music? 10/10. The acting? Guess....10 out of 10. Unpopular opinion, but this is Alfred Hitchcock at his best. We're following a woman, Marion Crane, who decides on an impulse to run away with the $40,000 she's been entrusted with to start a new life with her boyfriend Sam. She decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel and meets the owner, Norman Bates, who seems to have some mommy issues.
Ah... Norman Bates. What a guy. Anthony Perkin's characterization of Norman just elevates the movie from being good to being excellent. Everything about this movie is iconic. If you haven't already been spoiled for this movie, put everything down right now (seriously... right now) and go watch it immediately cause, you guessed it, it is 10/10.
Waqt (1965)
(Language: Hindi)
This entire movie is like one long life lesson: Time is everything. We are at the mercy of time, so enjoy your life while you can. I mean the literal translation of 'Waqt' is 'time'. In addition to all the wordly knowledge you will gain in watching this movie, you will also be highly entertained. It has family drama, a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, comedy, romance, men with mommy and daddy issues, and in true Bollywood fashion, a whole lot of songs that take place in some nice mountain area somewhere.
The movie starts with a very wealthy family living their best life when a fatal earthquake hits their area, in which the entire family is separated from one another. Each of the three sons ends up in a different situation. Raja, the eldest son, ends up being taken in by a criminal and he ends up a thief. Ravi, the middle son, ends up being adopted by wealthy parents and becomes a lawyer. Vijay, the youngest, stays with the mother and lives a poverty-stricken lifestyle, but somehow manages to go to college. How? I couldn't tell you, its a Bollywood movie. The father, through some series of circumstances, ends up in jail but then is let out after 20 years or so. At this point, all of their paths end up intersecting and that forms the rest of the movie.
As mentioned earlier, the movie really dwells on this idea of humans being at the mercy of time. This idea that your life could quite literally change in an instant, so you should be grateful and enjoy what you have in the moment.
Also, special shoutout to every woman in this film + Raaj Kumar, the actor who plays Raja, for literally setting some next level fashion standard.
Have
you ever seen a better yellow shirt? I think not.
Moonstruck (1987)
(Language: English)
You know when you just unexpectedly stumble across a movie that just weighs on your mind for a long time? This is that movie for me. Here I am, just living my life, and then BAM, this movie just accidentally comes across my path.
It features a young Cher and Nicholas Cage. In the film, Cher's character, Loretta, is engaged to be married to a man named Johnny. Johnny has to go to Italy to visit his mother, and while he's there, he asks Loretta to call his estranged brother Ronny to their wedding. Ronny, played by Nicholas Cage, is a baker who has a wooden hand and loves the opera and to no one's surprise, Loretta ends up falling in love with him, creating a love triangle situation. Meanwhile Loretta's mother and father are having their own marital trouble because Loretta's father is having an affair.
This movie is so all over the place. I mean people are falling in love instantly, they're constantly talking about death, the moon, and wolves (??? I don't even know), everyone thinks they're cursed or have bad luck, and there's an old man with 5 dogs which I still don't understand how or why. I genuinely felt like I needed to rewatch the movie right after the first time I saw it, because I felt like I had missed something. But even though I felt like nothing made sense, everything felt so believable and real. Nicholas Cage is so great in this movie. There is one scene in which Cage gives a very painful/hilarious monologue about his sad life and I could not stop laughing out loud at how unhinged this scene was and Cage deserves all the recognition for it.
The movie will make you laugh and question, but will also reaffirm your faith in humanity and the power of family and love. There are some one-liners in this movie that have just stuck with me so much. Like this one line Ronny says to Loretta: "We are not perfect. Snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and...and die. I mean the storybooks are bullshit!"
I mean...poetry right there. Need I say more?
Whisper of the Heart (1995)
(Language: Japanese)
This movie is about a teenage girl who doesn't know what to do in her life. Sounds pretty relatable, no?
Shizuku, our main protagonist, goes through the universal process of trying to figure out her future and what she wants. You don't need to be a teenager living in 90s Tokyo to get what the point of the film is, which is, don't be afraid to try. Shizuku ends up meeting Seki, a teenage boy, who's dream of becoming a violin maker inspires Shizuku to try and follow her dream of becoming a writer. While Shizuku faces a lot of self-doubt and questions her ability and skill, in the end she decides to try and begins putting in the effort to develop her craft. This idea that we shouldn't be afraid to pursue a dream, even if we internally think its far-fetched or we think we aren't good enough, is at the heart of the movie. Watching Shizuku grow into herself and experience newfound self-confidence while in the process of honing her writing craft is just so heartwarming and the core reason why the movie has earned a spot on my list. That and the fact that I absolutely adore the animation. This 90s anime aesthetic is just so nostalgic and cute. Sigh... now I wish I lived in Tokyo during the 90s.
(Language: English)
This is the greatest Disney movie of all time. I will not and cannot be convinced otherwise. This is a hill I'm choosing to die on. You got a boss female hero, a fantastic love story, a crazy grandma, loyal best friends, and a hilarious dragon sidekick. Please tell me what else you need from a movie? The correct answer here is nothing, absolutely nothing. If I need to explain to you the story of Mulan, you need to stop reading this and go watch the 1998 animated version. This movie needs no explaining. As I said, it is the greatest Disney movie of all time.
(Language: Hindi)
I have probably seen this movie 20 times. No joke. It is that good. We're mainly following this man named Aditya who has just been heartbroken and for some reason gets on a train. On the train, he runs into this woman named Geet, who literally cannot stop talking. Aditya, annoyed, decides to get off at some random stop, and Geet, being the concerned person that she is, gets off the train to tell him to get back on. In the process, she ends up missing the train. So begins the saga of Aditya taking Geet to her destination.
Geet and Aditya's friendship is the best part of this movie. Throughout the film we see Aditya develop as a character as he spends more time with Geet. We watch as he becomes more open, willing to try new things and take more risks in his life. After he and Geet part, we watch as he decides to spend more time on himself, devoting more time to his music, and reconciling with his mother. He treats his time with Geet as a time that, as he puts it, gave him a new lease on life.
Geet on the other hand, loses touch with herself after she and Aditya part. Her traumatic breakup with her boyfriend causes her to become depressed, introverted, and regretful. The scene where she and Aditya meet again after all that has happened, gets me every time. Aditya's anger about Geet not telling him what she had been through contrasted with Geet's hesitation that she keeps relying and taking favors from Aditya. Ugh. I experience all the emotions every single time.
At its root, the film contrasts perspectives on life. Geet, the individual who leads life dangerously close to the edge, is contrasted with Aditya, the individual who is risk-averse and ends up losing out on things due to this risk-averseness. As they influence each other throughout the film we come to see how Aditya incorporating Geet's openness into his life benefits him and how Geet has to reckon with her past recklessness.
In addition to all of this, I also just generally think the film is fun. The chemistry between the main characters is obvious, the comedic timing is fantastic, it has some great songs, and its just an overall romp of a movie. Also, this happens:
I mean...iconic.
Ready (2008)
(Language: Telugu)
The only way to describe this movie is 'like a warm hug'. Maybe it's because the movie is in Telugu. Maybe it's because the main female protagonist's name is Pooja. I don't know. But I do know that this movie really has it all. Yes I've already said this for about 3 of the other movies on this list, but listen, this movie really does it have it all. In true Telugu movie fashion, we have action-packed fight sequences, insane dance numbers, an ensemble cast of high profile South Indian actors, a sweet romance, and a lot of heartwarming family scenes. The movie is about this dude named Chandu who accidentally kidnaps a woman named Pooja from her wedding. Stuff happens before this and there is actually a relatively valid reason for why he kidnaps her, but I'm not going to get into it. Keeping the mystery alive, you know? Anyways, turns out Pooja was actually being forced to marry the guy, so she wanted out of the wedding and Chandu gave her the opportunity. So she's actually fine with being kidnapped. However, her family is not fine with it, AT ALL. In fact, Pooja's family is dangerous and will stop at nothing to find her and bring her back and force her into marriage. So they end up having to run away to escape this family. Chandu decides to help Pooja out and in the process, falls in love with her. How Chandu ends up winning over Pooja's family is the entire rest of the movie.
Honestly, Chandu's family are the main MVPs of this movie. The way they all rally around him to help him win over Pooja's family? Heart-fudging-warming. I mean his uncles and aunts do not hesitate for a second when he asks them to lie to Pooja's uncles about who they are. The other MVP of the movie is Chandu himself. Listen, I know his methods of convincing Pooja's family aren't great, however you gotta give him credit for the hustle. I mean this man is really creating such an elaborate plan on the fly here.
This movie is heartwarming more than anything. We see Pooja's family slowly coming to terms with their own behavior and how they've treated each other and Pooja over the years. Though there is a lot of action-packed fighting, Chandu and his family are actually able to get through to Pooja's family by just showing them how a loving family normally behaves. One scene that always gets me is one where Chandu's uncle calls Chandu's aunt to ask whether she ate or not. Pooja's uncles are so surprised as to why he would call her and ask her that, saying that they would never even think to call their wives. While Chandu's uncle's explanation is sexist as heck, the point remains that he calls his wife because he just genuinely cares about how she's doing. Seeing this, Pooja's uncles also end up calling their wives and inquiring whether they ate or not. It's such a small scene, but these small events of showing genuine care and concern for family is what actually ends up shifting the perspective of Pooja's own family.
Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya (2019)
(Language: Telugu)
At last we have arrived to the last movie on this list, and the most recent. Unlike most other movies on this list, this is a detective movie. Specifically, it is a comedy-detective mystery movie. We follow our Sherlock Holmes-wannabe, Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya, as he runs his failing detective business in Nellore, a city in Andhra Pradesh.
Athreya is ... how do I put this... idiotic. But in a cute funny way. He tries so hard to be like Sherlock Holmes, but he always overdoes it. I mean the man wears a ridiculous hat, suspenders, and carries around an empty coffee cup. His trusty Watson-like assistant, Sneha, is always taking the piss out of him. Then something amazing happens. A case falls into their laps, and not just any case. It is a really confusing, spirally case.
This movie starts off as being some unassuming funny detective movie, but by the end I was in LITERAL awe at how the story played out. The unexpected depth and thoughtfulness that went into this movie had me shook. To really get into why I love this movie, I'm going to have to get into spoilers.
*SPOILERS*
This movie is essentially a commentary on people's unquestioning belief in religious practices, particularly those surrouding death. Athreya and Sneha work on a case involving unidentified railway deaths. But it turns out, these individuals are not dying because of the train, they are actually already dead and they are just being thrown out of the train. What Athreya and Sneha uncover is that these individuals are dying of natural causes, and they find out that there is a group that claims to do special funeral/last rites for these people. They realize that the group is scamming these people, taking the dead bodies away from the families quickly under the pretense of doing some sacred last rites that must be done immediately after death, while actually the group is stealing fingerprints off the dead body, and then throwing them off a train in a different state so that they are not identifiable. People just never question anything, since they believe that their loved one has been cremated and has had their last rites done for them. The rest of the movie is about how Athreya and Sneha end up catching the perpetrators of this crime.
While the movie does a great job exploring how one can exploit people's unquestioning faith in the rites and rituals surrounding death, I think it does an even better job exploring the hidden victims of such unquestioning faith. In the film, we find out that Athreya's mother had been one of the individuals thrown off the train after her death. Athreya himself had not been able to come back to his hometown in time to say one last goodbye to his mother due to pressure put on his family to give up her body quickly to the scam group. Athreya's family genuinely didn't think twice about giving her body to the scam group as they thought she'd be given those last rites, when in reality, her fingerprints were stolen and she was thrown off the train.
*END OF SPOILERS*
Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya doesn't come across as a movie with high production value. Yet, the story, the screenplay, and the acting are all in abundance. Naveen Polishetty, the actor who plays Athreya, actually wrote the screenplay, making the film even better imho. Overall, I'd highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this movie.
Closing Thoughts:
So...this might have been the longest blog post I have ever made. Apologies for that. Clearly I had too much to say. But I hope you enjoyed my ranting and raving over my favorite movies of all time. Perhaps one day I'll make another installment featuring other movies that I love. Maybe not so soon though? I'm going to have to give my brain and wrists a break from all this thinking and typing. On a separate note, look for some book related content coming soon! If you made it this far, thanks and I hope at least one of these movies sounds appealing to you and you end up liking it just as much as I did!
